Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A vintage tractor was not quite what we expected to see parked behind the chocolate shop in Bellême, nor did we expect to see an English telephone booth across the street.

A local café owner told us that most vacationers in this pretty and out-of-the-way country town are either British or Parisian. No brag, just fact.

Frankly, what really surprised us was the motocross endurance circuit carved in a hill on the edge of this ordinarly quiet and sleepy town in the Orne department. As it turns out, a motorcycle club has existed in Bellême since 1955. We left wondering how much dust, commotion and commerce that stirs up on event days.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Whatnot for balcony and terrace gardeners in the heart of Paris. The Marché aux Fleurs, a fragrant and picturesque potted-flower, shrub and tree market on l'Île de la Cité, dates to the early 1800's. Interesting to stroll through the stands and shops, green thumb or not. Place Louis-Lépine, Quai de la Corse.

Vocabulary

les trucs: things, whatnot

avoir la main verte: to have a green thumb (to have a knack with plants)

Monday, August 27, 2012

À l'ongle on connaît le lion; byjust looking at his nail one can recognize a "lion." The sense is that even a detail is sufficient to recognize a great man; somewhat like the English expression, "you can tell a leopard by its spots."

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Twelve meters high and 18 tons of bronze thumb on the Esplanade of La Défense. This colossal version of Le Pouce (The Thumb)sculpted by César (César Baldaccini, 1921-1988), is more imposing than aesthetic. The original sculpture, an enlargement of a mold of the artist's own thumb, was cast in 1965 and measured 1,85 meters. A 6 meter-high version was created for the 1988 summer Olympics in Seuol, South Korea. The massive thumb at La Défense was put place in 1994.

Expressionsfaire tâche: to stick out like a sore thumbfaire du pouce: to thumb a ride; to hitchhikeavoir deux mains gauches: to be all thumbsen règle générale: as a rule of thumbune signe d'approbation: thumbs upun coup de pouce: a help, an aidsur le pouce: in a rapid mannermanger sur le pouce: to grab a bite to eat; to have a quick snack

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Not to be disparaging, but the 12th arrondissement's post-modern police headquarters building would fit in nicely on a Las Vegas strip. The Paris building, with its row of 12 imitations of Michelangelo's Dying Slave (also known as the Captive), is the work of Spanish postmodern architect of renown, Manolo Nuñez-Yanowski. Built in 1991 on the corner of avenue Daumesnil and rue de Rambouillet, the ironizing statues are best viewed from the suspended gardens across the street, the Promenade Plantée.

The Promenade Plantée, created from 1988 thru 1993, is a 4.7 km park high atop the red-brick viaduct of a discontinued urban rail line that crossed the 12th arrondissement. Landscape architects left clearings in the shrubbery and trees for observation of the more interesting architectural elements along the narrow but long promenade--like the building above.

View of a section of the old railway transformed into the Promenade Plantée. Some ten meters above street level, the suspended garden begins behind the Opéra Bastille and continues, elevated, to the Jardin Reuilly, after which it descends, ending at the old terminus near the boulevard périphérique.

At street level on avenue Daumesnil, the arcades of the viaduct were transformed into a designers' area, the Viaduc des Arts. Fifty or so storefronts are there in which mostly high-end artisanal activities are carried on--such as violin-making, lacemaking or restoration of antique parasols.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A French child's education is not complete without having learned by heart at least two or three fables by Jean de La Fontaine. Pompon, this blog's mascot, kindly illustrates the expression "montrer patte blanche" popularized in "Le Loup, le Chèvre, et le Chevreau."

The fable, in short: One day when the mother goat had to leave her kid home alone, locked the door and told him a phrase to use as a password, with instructions not to open the door to anyone without it. The wolf who was sneaking around the house at the time, overheard the phrase. When the mother goat left, he knocked at the door and repeated the password. But because he did not get the phrase just right, the young goat was suspicious and asked that he "show a white paw," proof the he was not the wolf.

It was while living in this villa in Lyons-la-Forêt, a picturesque and peaceful village surrounded by an undoubtedly inspiring beech-tree forest in the Vexin Normand, that Maurice Ravel composed Le Tombeau de Couperin. For twenty-five minutes of trembling-leaf-listening pleasure, click here.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Life in the basse-cour, a show for all to see when entering Gerberoy, one of the prettiest villages of France and located in the heart of Picardie. The small utility trailer doubling as a roost is a spot from which the hens like to see and be seen.

Vocabularyla téléréalité: reality televisionla basse-cour: farmyardun dindon: a turkey cock, a gobblerune dinde: a turkey; also slang for a silly womanglouglouter: to gobble (like a turkey); to gurgleglouglou: gobbleengloutir: to gobble up, devourun perchoir: a roost, a perch

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Shade and water at Place de la Contrescarpe, in the heart of the village-like Mouffetard neighborhood in the Latin Quarter. Ringed by bistros, cafés and bars, the festive place is a favorite watering hole of university students.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

I could have sworn she moved slightly the instant I noticed her in the Louis Vuitton show window on avenue George V in Paris. But no, it wasn't really the atypical artist Yayoi-Kusama, nor a live sosie of her, but a wax-figure mannequin of the long-reigning queen of Japanese avant-garde. Kusama and Louis Vuitton have collaborated to launch a new line based on Kusama's fetish pattern, polka dots. The manga-style dotted wave decor, however, belies the prettiness of the new LV line. Click here to judge for yourself.

High noon in Strasbourg: exterior and interieur views of the rosette of the city's splendiferous Cathédrale Notre Dame. Called la Grande Rose, the rosette is unique in that it represents wheat in the blade, source of bread and symbol of prosperity. After Notre Dame de Paris, the Strasbourg cathedral is the second most visited in France. For a virtual tour, as well as a "sphénoramique(TM)" visit in 3-D click here. (Sphénoramique is a registered trademark for high-resolution spheric panoramique photographs.)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

We haven't been able to find an equivalent, age-old proverbe in French for "make hay while the sun shines" other than the Larousse's disappointing proposition of "battre le fer pendant qu'il est chaud." Strike while the iron is hot. So I'm taking the matter into my own hands with the literal translation: Faire les foins pendant que le soleil brille.

Monday, August 13, 2012

An interesting thought from a French essayist, philosopher and professor, Alain (1868-1951): "Everyone thinks according to the nature of the seat on which he sits." By coincidence, this photo was taken in a town in Le Perche, a province in which Alain was born. Alain, whose real name was Emile Chartier, was a popular, concise and succinct rationalist of his time.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

French Food. Straight from Paris on Rue Monge in the 5th arrondissement.

Although we had plenty of colloquialisms, "hold your tater" was not one used where I grew up, but it works here. For non-anglophone readers, tater is American regional slang for potato; the exclamation "hold your tater" means "slow down" or an incredulous "wait a minute."

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

This lady looks terrific everywhere, even on a traffic circle outside of Colmar where she has been distracting drivers since 2004. The 12-meter high composite replica of the Statue of Liberty was put in place by the city to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of Colmar's most famous native son, sculptor Auguste Bartholdi. It was only after we had driven around the traffic circle a couple of times trying to take photos from the car window that we discovered that a portion of a nearby shopping center's parking lot, with a fairly decent vantage point, was reserved for her admirers.

Text translated from the city of Colmar's official Website states that the statue is one link more with the United States, already symbolized since the 1986 twinning of Colmar with the city of Princeton, New Jersey, located not far from New York. See also a reader's comment about the sister cities on yesterday's blog post.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Dinner time on a summer evening in Colmar's Petite Venise (Little Venice) when most of the tourists are off the streets and seated at tables. The beautiful Alsatian city which attracts more than 2 million tourists yearly, has a permanent population of about 68,000.

Monday, August 6, 2012

This village bed and breakfast in historic Riquewihr might take first prize for best Alsatian kitsch; but it's one that could transform a long day of vacationing into a magical one for worn-out-from-touring tots. Une aubaine.

Vocabularyune aubaine: a godsend; an unhoped for advantageune peluche: a cuddly toy; fluffune chambre d'hôte: a bed and breakfastun bambin: a tot

Sunday, August 5, 2012

We like the sound of Alsacez-vous, the slogan for the 2012 publicity campaign to promote tourism in Alsace, and take it to mean "experience Alsace." Above, nesting on a rooftop in Eguisheim is a white stork, not only the symbol of a newly arrived baby, but also the symbol of Alsace. Although the legend that storks deliver babies wrapped in a sling to families is generally claimed to have northern European origins, it is an Alsatian custom for children who want a baby brother or sister to place a piece of sugar on a window ledge to attract a stork carrying the hoped for bundle of joy.

The medieval village of Eguisheim, built with its streets in concentric circles, is on the list of the most beautiful villages in France. It is also there where one of the first parks to reintroduce and to protect storks, whose population had been seriously declining, was created in 1983.

So many days have been cool and rainy this season that it's nice to have wake-up reminders that it actually is summer in northern France, like these field poppies bordering a wheatfield at Gerberoy, a country village in Picardie. Until the 16th century the flower was called coquerico because it resembled a rooster's cockscomb. Its name was eventually morphed to coquelicot.

A classic French children's song with sing-along words for French learners: Gentil Coquelicot

Saturday, August 4, 2012

After years of personal observation, I have come to the conclusion that in France the best and most appropriately dressed tourists for the circumstances are by far Japanese. Here's an example in Gerberoy, a beautiful country village in Picardie.

Friday, August 3, 2012

After comparing photos we couldn't help but notice the facial similarities of the plaster cast of Rodin's Jean le Baptiste dating from 1878 in his Meudon studio, above,and that of the saint's head represented a century earlier on the baroque periord redecoration of the façade of the Chapelle des Pénitents Noirs in the former papal city of Avignon, below.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Le Lion de Belfort, sculpted by the Alsacian artist Auguste Bartholdi of Statue of Liberty fame, is a roaring 22 meters long and 11 meters high. The monument is installed at the base of a cliff in Belfort, just below splendid fortifications that were engineered by the Marquis de Vauban (1633-1707) during the reign of Louis XIV. Red sandstone blocks of the Vosges mountains were chiseled individually then assembled to form the gigantic lion which commemorates Belfort's 103-day resistance when under siege in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871.